October 2019 – Page 58

Jared Leto Tried To Stop The New Joker Movie, Report Says

We already knew Jared Leto was reportedly not thrilled with DC’s decision to make the new Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, and now a new report alleges that Leto tried to stop the movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leto was so frustrated with Warner Bros. making the new movie with Phoenix and director Todd Phillips that he complained to his then agents at CAA and also asked another one of his manager’s to try to reach out to reach out to top management at Warner Bros. to try to kill the new Joker movie.

A source from Leto’s team, however, told THR that Leto never did this. Leto and this agent, Irving Azoff–who represents Leto in his music endeavors–have since split up. Another thing to know as well is that CAA is the same talent management company that represents Phillips. Leto has since signed with CAA rival company WME.

Reports have suggested that Leto felt he was promised his own standalone Joker movie, and he was upset when Warner Bros. decided to make the new movie with Phoenix. Sources said Leto believed his agents at CAA should have fought harder for his take on Joker and should have informed him earlier about the Joker movie with Phoenix and Phillips. He reportedly wanted more respect as a Oscar winner (Dallas Buyers Club).

According to the site’s sources, Warner Bros. did not think Joker would be a big hit, given its tone and R-rating, and only greenlit the project on a small budget (~$55 million) to try to push Phillips off the idea of making the movie in the first place. That is not how it all worked out, however, as the low-budget movie went on to become a massive success; it has earned critical acclaim and more than $730 million at the box office.

The THR report goes on to say that WB management “wasn’t thrilled” with how Leto handled himself in the process of making Suicide Squad, his first appearance as Joker. According to the report, he gave “gifts” to castmates like a live rat to Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) and a dead pig for every actor during rehearsals. Leto only ended up with about 10 minutes of screen time in Suicide Squad.

“In his defense, it was never really his movie, but his attempt to ‘invent’ a place for himself in it backfired,” a source told THR.

According to Leto, the number of Joker scenes cut from Suicide Squad’s theatrical version amounted to enough to fill an entire Joker movie.

“I think that I brought so much to the table in every scene, it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity,” Leto said in an earlier interview. “Because I wanted to give a lot of options, and I think there’s probably enough footage in this film for a Joker movie.

Leto is still employed by Warner Bros., as he is filming The Little Things with Rami Malek and Denzel Washington at the studio currently. However, Leto is reportedly finished playing Joker, as he won’t appear as the character in the Harley Quinn spinoff Birds of Prey or The Suicide Squad.

Marvel Movies Are “Despicable,” Director Of The Godfather Says; Deadpool Creator Responds

One of Hollywood’s best-known and most esteemed directors, Francis Ford Coppola, has backed up Martin Scorsese’s negative comments about Marvel movies, and he took things a step further. The five-time Oscar winning director behind movies like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now said Scorsese is right when he said superhero movies are “not cinema” and that movie theatres have become more like “amusement parks.”

Marvel movies don’t offer enlightenment, knowledge, or inspiration, the 80-year-old director said to reporters after accepting the Lumiere Award in France recently.

“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” he said, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency and France 24.

“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema,” Coppola added. “He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”

Coppola’s comments led to a swift response on social media from movie fans and movie-makers. Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld said Scorsese and Coppola are titans of the movie business, and they have “earned” a place to share their opinions about film.

That being said, Liefeld correctly pointed out that Marvel, DC, and others will not stop making superhero movies just because Scorsese and Coppola don’t like them.

Scorsese and Coppola are on the cinematic Mt. Rushmore. They have more than earned their views on cinema and their opinions should not surprise or ignite. They won’t affect the creation of comic films or your enjoyment of them.

— robliefeld (@robertliefeld) October 20, 2019

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, meanwhile, said in a post on Instagram that no one should be surprised by the comments made by Scorsese and Coppola.

Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them ‘despicable.’ Some of our great grandfathers thought the same of westerns, and believed the films of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone were all exactly the same. I remember a great uncle to whom I was raving about Star Wars. He responded by saying, ‘I saw that when it was called 2001, and, boy, was it boring!’ Superheroes are simply today’s gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers. Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful. Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay”

Marvel’s MCU is the most profitable film franchise in cinema history, grossing a gargantuan $18 billion over the past 10 years.

Link’s Awakening: Eagle’s Tower Complete Walkthrough

See how to destroy every pillar in Eagle’s Tower in Link’s Awakening.

Terminator: Dark Fate First Reactions Social Roundup

Members of the press were able to attend early screenings of Terminator: Dark Fate, and the first impressions are very positive.

Many praise Mackenzie Davis’ Grace and the return of Linda Hamilton. Additionally, Terminator: Dark Fate appears to take a Star Wars: The Force Awakens approach to the Terminator franchise that began back in 1991.

Here’s our roundup of the first reactions to Terminator: Dark Fate.”

IGN’s Jim Vejvoda took to Instagram to say “Terminator: Dark Fate succeeds as both a suitable closing chapter for the original two James Cameron films and a possible gateway to exciting new chapters ahead. While the threshold may be low thanks to the last three would-be franchise resets, Dark Fate is the best Terminator film since T2. #terminatordarkfate”

Early Copies Of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Have Begun Appearing In The Wild, Watch Out For Spoilers

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare isn’t slated for release until October 25 (or late in the day on October 24, depending on where you live), but ahead of that, it seems early copies of the game are beginning to appear in the wild. The game’s physical edition for PS4 and Xbox One are printed on discs, and those discs have to make it to retailers in time for launch.

Given the size and scale of a Call of Duty release, it’s expected that some discs would get into players’ hands ahead of time, and that is exactly what seems to have happened this week.

Reports on social media reveal that copies of Modern Warfare’s PS4 edition have gone out early for some reason. What this means for Call of Duty fans is that it’s a good time to be extra careful online to avoid spoilers, if that matters to you.

It’s not clear how or why the early copies of Modern Warfare came out ahead of time. In 2011, two masked men armed with tear gas and knives hijacked a truck near Paris and fled with its cargo, which contained around 6,000 copies of Modern Warfare 3.

The new Modern Warfare, which is a reboot of sorts of the 2007 game, is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Recently, Activision talked about how progression will work and revealed a new Fortnite-style battle pass. Additionally, the company announced exactly when the game’s servers go live.

HBO’s Watchmen: 22 Easter Eggs and References You Missed

Tick tok, tick tok.

HBO’s highly anticipated Watchmen TV show has finally arrived and, in true Watchmen fashion, has packed in layers upon layers of meaning in each and every scene with the help of some carefully placed Easter eggs and references. What’s more, as a direct sequel to the original 12-issue comic series, the show’s alternate history world-building relies on just how much you’re able to pick out and notice as the characters go about their daily lives.

What we’re saying here is: Watchmen is a show that demands a lot of attention, and possibly multiple viewings, to really take in every important clue and detail. Luckily, we here at GameSpot are ready to put in the time so you don’t have to. We’ve combed over every frame of episode 1 for these 22 hidden references, nods, and details to help you better wrap your head around the show’s world and story.

Batwoman Remains the Arrowverse’s Weak Link

Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Batwoman: Season 1, Episode 3. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 1, Episode 2.

Three episodes in, I’ve decided I’m far more in love with the idea of Batwoman than I am the series itself. It’s great seeing Kate Kane take the spotlight on The CW, both because she’s a compelling heroine and because it’s yet another reminder that the Arrowverse is running circles around the MCU and DCEU when it comes to LGBTQ representation. But that doesn’t change the fact that the series continues to fall well short of its potential. Rather than carve a unique niche for Kate Kane in the Arrowverse, this series is content to recycle the same tropes and cliches we’ve seen time and time again.

The Walking Dead: “Ghosts” Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…

The Walking Dead rebounded a bit this week with an episode that started as the show’s own version of BSG’s wildly intense “33,” in which waves of walkers descended upon Alexandria, keeping everyone up for 48 hours, and then ended as a meditation on Carol’s overall mental state.

And in between, because it was a chapter that bobbed and weaved quite a bit, Negan graduated to full-fledged Alexandria protector (Aaron was the mini-boss he had to reconcile with), Siddiq’s anxiety and manifesting trauma began to hinder his work (Dante covered for him, while also revealing his backstory a bit), and Rosita and Eugene had to have “the talk” (about how he still harbored hope for a romance that wasn’t going to happen). So, all around, a busy episode.

What Was Raining on HBO’s Watchmen?

Spoilers follow for the first episode of HBO’s Watchmen. Learn which original Watchmen characters are returning in the HBO show and which aren’t right here.

During one particular moment in the premiere episode of HBO’s sequel series Watchmen, viewers not familiar with the original graphic novel may have been scratching their heads… even while they felt the need to pop an umbrella. We’re talking about the scene where Regina King’s Angela Abar and her son Topher (Dylan Schombing) drive into a… baby squid storm.

Squid storm!

HBO’s Watchmen Premiere Review

HBO’s new Watchmen show has a lot on its mind, though I wonder if it knows what to do with it.

The original comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons gave rise to numerous imitators: Superhero “deconstructions” that leaned into the gritty tone and texture of the book, without capturing its political purview. The sequel show, created by Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) seems to understand what made the 1986-87 graphic novel great; Moore and Gibbons’ story, set contemporaneously, explored the era’s Cold War political anxieties and fears of fascism through the lens of “realistic” superheroes, whose emergence in the 1940s led to an alternate history. Lindelof’s approach feels similar. He uses the genre’s big ideas to touch on several hot-button issues of the last few years — issues that have existed for decades and centuries, but have gained mainstream exposure through social media: police brutality, and white supremacy. And while the show seems to separate the two, despite their deeply entangled structural history, it appears to do so knowingly — perhaps even winkingly, with more in store. Whether it succeeds, however, remains to be seen.